April 12, 2009
The Ins and Outs of Shortsightedness
One of the most standard causes for wearing spectacles is shortsightedness
For a bunch of reasons, a person might become short sighted. The offical term for this is shortsightedness. When somebody is nearsighted, they can not focus well into the distance, but they can see rather sharply, when looking up close at things.
To be nearsighted or short sighted, the light ray that comes into your eye focuses too quickly as either the cornea or lens are too short or your eyes are too long..
Unlike many other aspects in life, myopia tends to improve with time. Nobody is definitely sure as to why this is, alternatively it may be the lens becomes stiffer with age and so can’t focus the rays of light so acutely. What then follows is the focal point of the light, becomes closer and closer to the retina.
About 1 in 4 Americans are nearsighted.
Using a variety of techniques, trained eye care practitioners can assess whether or not a child is able to focus clearly. They use play, retinoscopy and refraction to help them do this carefully.
The type and extent of shortsightedness is determined by additional testing. These tests include an evaluation of the child’s binocular vision, his eye movements, his ability to converge and focus on objects close-up, and his ocular health. Dilation of the eye allows the doctor to check for complications of ROP, diabetes, or degenerative myopia.
There are many children who will be falsely assessed to be myopic, due to the fact that of their natural tendency to over focus. To counter this, a trained eye pratitioner will often elect to dilate the pupils with some eye drops to prevent the child’s lenses from over correcting.
shortsightedness is most commonly treated with spectacles or glasses. shortsightedness in preschool children does not need to be corrected with spectacles, unless either anisometropia, a condition in which there is a difference of more than 1.00 diopters between the two eyes, or amblyopia, a condition in which a child cannot be corrected to 20/20 with spectacles, is present.
For learning to take place at school, it is vital that they can focus on far away targets. So, if your child has shortsightedness, make sure that they have their eyes formally assessed every 6 months or so to ensure that they have the correction spectacles that they require.
Spectacles will commonly need to be worn all the time. There are a few children who have a rare problem with converging their eyes and they may need to actually remove their eyeglasses for when they need to do close up work.











